The Healer
by 7spellshells
Summary: Auraya meets Leiard/Mirar for the first time, when she was a child. She has to collect herbst for her mother, falls, and Leiard finds and heals her.


**The Healer**

Auraya lept across the little river, like she had done so many times. When the sun slowly nestled itself to the hills, when the firbirds began their evening song, when she went out to gather the herbs her mother needed.

And every third evening it was the same, out of the village, through the trees, up the stream, and then over it with a light leap. She knew it by heart, her feet knew it by heart, but now her feet slipped on the wet, cleyey ground, she tumbled, tried to catch her fall and her right foot snapped inwards as she crashed into the river bed.

Nothing.

Nothing she felt for a moment.

Then there was the firbird's chirp.

The water running. Cold.

And then heat piercing its way through her bones up her leg.

Auraya winced. Tears drippled into the stream uncontrollably and a sob escaped her.

_Ooooooow_

She began searching for stones or sticks she could hold onto and pull herself up. Pain piercrf her again as she had to put her weight onto her right foot.

Again she sobbed, choked on her tears, coughed and nearly lost her balance again.

She scrambled onto the bank, sat, looked at her foot. It was turned inward awkwardly. Started to swell and she could feel the thumping, seething pain increase.

Dusk settled herself beneath the trees like a cat before the stove. How should she get home now?

And without the herbs her mother needed so badly?

They would send a search party, yes.

_But I never told her the paths I take, I never told her where the plants grow. _

A shadow passed beneath the trees. Auraya jerked, tried to push herself up. Managed that but the shape came closer so fast that she couldn't even shriek in surprise.

A man. Tall, with light grey hair and a long beard, huddled in a dark cloak.

He halted before her and waited, as though to give her time to overcome her shock.

_Auraya_

Later she would ponder over whether he had said her name out loud or she had heard his voice only in her head.

"Who are you?", Auraya asked and tried to limp backwards.

"I am a healer. Let me help you sit down". His voice was warm like the summer that was still about the hills, although fall would soon follow. Slowly, he came toward her, took her by the elbow and helped her sit down on the short tree trunk she used to leap off over the stream.

"Mhm", he said, examining her foot.

"I need to take off your shoe", and with one hand gently, but firmly holding her leg above the ankle, with the other he loosened her shoe and pulled it off.

Auraya couldn't feel her toes beyond the throbbing pain, neither could she see anything, but the man apparently didn't need to see.

He slid his fingers across her skin and Auraya pushed back her tears.

"It's okay, it is not broken. Overstretched. You will soon walk again".

He laid her foot onto his satchel and took something out of a small bag that dangled from his belt. He grated it between his hands and a bittersweet scent filled the air. The man took a handful of water and as he brushed his fingers over her foot again, the pain quieted down under the cool touch.

Auraya watched the stranger pull a long cloth from a pocket in his cloak and bind it around her foot, not too tightly. He then got up, went about the river a bit and came back with a short piece of bark, binding that too to her sole.

"There, this will stabilize your foot, for now. The balm must be renewed in the morning and then again at midday and evening. I will bring it to you, if you want. But for now, I shall bring you home".

He lifted her up. "Can you hold onto my shoulders?" He asked."I will carry you on my back down to the village". He bent his knees, Auraya jumped from her left foot, flung her arms around his neck and he caught her legs.

"Good?" He asked.

"Yes" Auraya said.

And he started walking, slowly, carefully. He seemed to know each step through the forest, as the whisper of the water fell back behind them. The darkness hushed the hills to silence, but the woods only now awakened.

"I want to know" Auraya said, not heeding the sounds of the animals around.

"What?" the man said.

"How to do that. Make the pain go away". _Mother will be better. _

"Magic"

"Please tell me", Auraya said.

"Really, magic and a herb and some water and cloth, that is all", the man said as he stepped across the Fallen Rilgtree, that still bloomed in summer, although a storm had struck it down long before Auraya had been born.

"How did you do the magic?" Auraya said, for the village priest did magic, too. But he hadn't shown her.

"That I will tell you, when you can walk again. When we walk together to fetch the herbs your mother needs. Different ones. The wakefoil lets her sleep, but it won´t ease her pain for long".

"She always needs more", Auraya replied.

Slowly, the trees parted around them and the man stepped out to the meadows.

„What is your name?", she asked. Insects still buzzed, the high grass rustled.

She waited and could feel him hesitate in his steps.

"Don't you know your name?" she asked.

"Leiard, I am called Leiard", he said.

"Thank you for helping me" Auraya said, suddenly becoming aware of what had just happened.

"It is my duty to give my help to those who need it".

"You're a Dreamweaver!", she would have almost lost her hold in surprise.

"Mother told me, that you know more of healing than..." she fell silent, for the priest did not like such talk.

"Yes, I am a Dreamweaver. And I will teach you, what I know, if you want. But first, you must heal. And that means your body recovering more than any other magic there is".

They fell silent, and as Auraya wondered about magic and healing and the stars sparkling in an inkblack sky, the Dreamweaver Leiard carried her into the village and put her down at her house.

Later, Auraya wanted to ask him, how he had known which was her home, but she thought: "_Magic and a way and some memories you had"_ he would probably have said.

He put her down and put a handful of fragrant herbs into the pocket of her coat.

"Mix these with milk. If your mother drinks them, she will find relief and calm for two days and the pain will ease".

"Thank you, again", she said and leaned against the doorknob.

"I will see you tomorrow morning, when I bring the herbs for you. Dream well". He smiled.

And with that, his cloak had pulled him back into the night.

Auraya opened the door and pushing herself forward, step by step she managed to get to kitchen. Her father was still up, now tending to both his wife and his daughter.

Auraya told him about the healer who had helped her, and her father did not ask more.

After they had given her mother the medicine, her father carried Auraya up to her bed and tucked her in.

"Sleep well". He said and closed the door to her room.

All was dark about her. She could hear the forest from up the hills.

And a warm voice.

_Dream well. _

And Auraya fell asleep.


End file.
